your right i should of clarified, or at least provided more support for my argument. i was thinking previous patch greyhound canister round, which with a quick click could negate any bonus offered from cover via direction, whilst still having a squad clump, which i suppose is still the case, just not a "critical".
also, does the damage modifier affect mortars, seeing as the shell is arriving from above, or... over, the cover? i guess?
I test it with precision strike on the SU mortars, so i guess it applies to everything else. Cover direction against mortar matters. You won't be 1shot if you are on the right side of the cover.
"not when a squad decide to occupy 2 ft of real estate on a 20ft wall and an aoe weapon hits. 50% reduction doesn't mean a thing in both of the very real possibilities of taking previous damage and suffering crits"
You are the one who puts them in cover and you can position them as you want. If your squad is low in health, then it's not a 1shot. If you take the risk of keep fighting while low on health and with indirect fire been around or not paying attention to nades, that's again your problem.